A Private Mobile Network (PMN) solution was deployed, initially on a trial basis, at a water treatment works on Dartmoor and proved highly successful. A BTS (Base Station Transceiver) was installed within the building, just outside the main control room, and found to give very good GSM coverage across the entire site.
Engineers working around the water treatment works are now able to communicate with one another and with headquarters staff using standard mobile handsets.
Signal strength is high and coverage good across the working area of the site. This ensures a reliable communications service is in place to support staff in their work and to support South West Water’s responsibilities regarding the health and safety of their employees.
A spokesperson within the South West Water Information Services Team commented, “The Private Mobile Network gives us excellent mobile coverage at operational sites, removing the communications difficulties we had prior to implementing the solution.”
The primary business driver for implementing the solution was reliable mobile coverage at the water treatment works. However, there are also cost advantages as all calls between staff at the remote site and with staff at the headquarters buildings are, effectively, internal calls carried over an internal network, these calls do not incur call charges.
Some assets around the reservoir were reliant upon adequate mobile coverage to transmit telemetry signals back to the Exeter control room to allow effective remote monitoring. The SIM card within the telemetry units were replaced with PMN SIM cards in order to make use of the more reliable private GSM network and route traffic over the data link back to Exeter.
South West Water has many remote locations, some of which cover a very large area. Many of these sites are in mobile black spots. This makes it difficult for visiting engineers to communicate with one another or with head office staff, and poses a potential health and safety issue.
South West Water is now considering options to roll this solution out across other sites.